The Nan Tien Institute Postgraduate Department of Buddhist Studies in co-operation with theFaculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, will hold a conference on the theme of “Mindfulness, Education and Transformation” September 06 – 07, 2014 at the Nan Tien Temple Conference Centre of Nan Tien Institute, 180 Berkeley Road, Berkeley (Wollongong), NSW, 2506, Australia.

Textual traditions inform that mindfulness has been centrally situated in Buddhism since the earliest beginnings, more than 2500 years ago. The formation of modern Buddhism, with a new marked emphasis on meditation, has generated since the early 20th century a great expansion of mindfulness practice among the lay population. Decades later, this has became established in entirely new, secular contexts and settings, most notably as a therapeutic tool. In the new domains the meaning and function of mindfulness have been reinterpreted and reinvented significantly. Since mindfulness has entered universities and has been incorporated into mainstream science, research on the benefits of mindfulness has been growing exponentially. More recently, mindfulness has been introduced in school environments, and its impact on physical and psychological well-being of school children has been researched increasingly.